Wrong thread January 12, 2009 10:01 AM Subscribe
Pony request: I seem to be eternally replying to something in Recent Activity, only to find I've actually responded to the wrong thread. I'm not sure I'm entirely alone in this...
...so of course I have suggestions for technological solutions to my idiocy:
Firstly I think part of the problem, for me at least, is that the link to the thread is way at the top of the comments shown for that thread, and somehow my brain makes the leap of clicking on the heading for the thread below. Possibly tacking a "View this thread" link at the bottom of each threads activity would help with this?
Secondly I usually end up tagging these random posts to the wrong thread as "noise", but it'd be nice to have a flag for "wrong thread". I'm not sure that self-flagging isn't highlighted on the admin side, but it would be nice if these were
(Yes I've just posted something that looks weird out of context in the wrong thread, for the Nth time in the last week. Why do you ask? )
...so of course I have suggestions for technological solutions to my idiocy:
Firstly I think part of the problem, for me at least, is that the link to the thread is way at the top of the comments shown for that thread, and somehow my brain makes the leap of clicking on the heading for the thread below. Possibly tacking a "View this thread" link at the bottom of each threads activity would help with this?
Secondly I usually end up tagging these random posts to the wrong thread as "noise", but it'd be nice to have a flag for "wrong thread". I'm not sure that self-flagging isn't highlighted on the admin side, but it would be nice if these were
(Yes I've just posted something that looks weird out of context in the wrong thread, for the Nth time in the last week. Why do you ask? )
You can just click the last timestamp.
posted by smackfu at 10:04 AM on January 12, 2009 [1 favorite]
posted by smackfu at 10:04 AM on January 12, 2009 [1 favorite]
I know it's sorta gauche to suggest a homebrew/habit solution to these sorts of things, but when I get to the bottom of a thread on recent activity and want to comment, I just click the link under the last comment. "posted 1 minute ago" gets me to the bottom of the thread.
Including an 'Add your comment' link at the end of each thread on RA might be cool, though, pointing at the #comment anchor.
posted by carsonb at 10:06 AM on January 12, 2009
Including an 'Add your comment' link at the end of each thread on RA might be cool, though, pointing at the #comment anchor.
posted by carsonb at 10:06 AM on January 12, 2009
You can flag as HTML error or something and we'll see it pretty quickly and be pretty sure we know what happened. A note in the contact form is also just fine for this. And yeah there's no self-flagging indicator which is probably just fine.
As to your suggestion, I could see it being useful [I click on the timestamp myself] but I'm having a hard time seeing how it would be implemented. It seems we'd have a "View this thread" link which would be mere inches away from the timestamp which you're already saying you don't click on. Suggestions?
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 10:13 AM on January 12, 2009
As to your suggestion, I could see it being useful [I click on the timestamp myself] but I'm having a hard time seeing how it would be implemented. It seems we'd have a "View this thread" link which would be mere inches away from the timestamp which you're already saying you don't click on. Suggestions?
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 10:13 AM on January 12, 2009
We see this happen really infrequently. I'd say maybe a misplaced comment once every week or two on average? So as much as I can dig the annoyance of being the mis-commentor (and that's been me once or twice too), I'm not sure it's the sort of thing that presents a clear need for modifying the UI. Certainly not a new flag -- something as weird and one-off as this is probably more of a write-us-an-email thing if you're not satisfied with just the followup "wrong thread" comment and flag routine.
posted by cortex (staff) at 10:15 AM on January 12, 2009
posted by cortex (staff) at 10:15 AM on January 12, 2009
I also like Add a comment at the bottom of each post's summary.
posted by fantabulous timewaster at 10:20 AM on January 12, 2009 [1 favorite]
posted by fantabulous timewaster at 10:20 AM on January 12, 2009 [1 favorite]
> I *could*, but I don't.
Maybe you should. It's just sitting there, all HTML-ified and clickable.
posted by ardgedee at 10:21 AM on January 12, 2009
Maybe you should. It's just sitting there, all HTML-ified and clickable.
posted by ardgedee at 10:21 AM on January 12, 2009
Well, I *should* not make typos, say stupid things, or click favourite instead of flag. It’s not really a “should” thing.
posted by Artw at 10:25 AM on January 12, 2009
posted by Artw at 10:25 AM on January 12, 2009
fantabulous timewaster has the ideal wording and target of the link there.
posted by Artw at 10:26 AM on January 12, 2009
posted by Artw at 10:26 AM on January 12, 2009
Heh. This is definitely an ongoing problem for Artw.
posted by Pronoiac at 10:28 AM on January 12, 2009
posted by Pronoiac at 10:28 AM on January 12, 2009
Damn. I completely forgot about the CD Swap.
posted by stavrogin at 10:32 AM on January 12, 2009 [2 favorites]
posted by stavrogin at 10:32 AM on January 12, 2009 [2 favorites]
No, it's just you.
posted by desjardins at 10:35 AM on January 12, 2009
posted by desjardins at 10:35 AM on January 12, 2009
Pronoiac - tsk. Once is funny, twice is being a bit of a snide fucker.
posted by Artw at 10:36 AM on January 12, 2009
posted by Artw at 10:36 AM on January 12, 2009
Thanks for making me feel better at myself. It's like my coach always said, "No matter how dumb you feel, there's always someone dumber." He also said that those people didn't think of themselves as dumb, but thought there was something wrong with the world around them. So I guess feeling dumb means you're not really that dumb. God, do I miss that assgrabbing sonuvabitch.
posted by Eideteker at 10:51 AM on January 12, 2009
posted by Eideteker at 10:51 AM on January 12, 2009
Oh, in case my point was lost there, you're not *that* dumb, Artw, because you're probably feeling pretty dumb right now. I know, because Pronoiac does good work. Even if he is an assgrabbing sonuvabitch.
posted by Eideteker at 10:52 AM on January 12, 2009
posted by Eideteker at 10:52 AM on January 12, 2009
fantabulous timewaster's idea is a good one, imo. in the event that it doesn't come to be, though, I second smackfu's "last comment timestamp" policy as a next best option. it's what I always do, though it's not ideal.
posted by shmegegge at 11:00 AM on January 12, 2009
posted by shmegegge at 11:00 AM on January 12, 2009
We see this happen really infrequently
Heh. Proof that sometimes, when you think "I bet this happens to everyone", you're wrong.
posted by smackfu at 11:06 AM on January 12, 2009
Heh. Proof that sometimes, when you think "I bet this happens to everyone", you're wrong.
posted by smackfu at 11:06 AM on January 12, 2009
"I'm not sure I'm entirely alone in this... "
You are entirely alone in everything. Ever.
posted by Eideteker at 11:16 AM on January 12, 2009
You are entirely alone in everything. Ever.
posted by Eideteker at 11:16 AM on January 12, 2009
Eideteker: "It's like my coach always said, "No matter how dumb you feel, there's always someone dumber.""
There's gotta be someone at the bottom. As my coach always said, "It's not turtles all the way down."
posted by Plutor at 11:18 AM on January 12, 2009
There's gotta be someone at the bottom. As my coach always said, "It's not turtles all the way down."
posted by Plutor at 11:18 AM on January 12, 2009
Er, posting in the wrong thread happens to other people too. Whever or not the thing with the headers is a significant factor in that is unclear.
(Also "No, you're an idiot, and fuck you for asking" is pretty much the standard non-admin response to any feature request, so it's not like you can completely trust the peanut gallery.)
posted by Artw at 11:20 AM on January 12, 2009
(Also "No, you're an idiot, and fuck you for asking" is pretty much the standard non-admin response to any feature request, so it's not like you can completely trust the peanut gallery.)
posted by Artw at 11:20 AM on January 12, 2009
My coach usually said, "You're running the wrong way, stupid!"
posted by stavrogin at 11:21 AM on January 12, 2009
posted by stavrogin at 11:21 AM on January 12, 2009
I'm not so sure I agree with your point about cat declawing, but I can definitely appreciate your desire to liquefy goats.
posted by blue_beetle at 11:25 AM on January 12, 2009 [1 favorite]
posted by blue_beetle at 11:25 AM on January 12, 2009 [1 favorite]
It’s not really a “should” thing.
Yeah, it really is. And wash those dishes, don't wait for your roommate to do them.
posted by languagehat at 12:15 PM on January 12, 2009
Yeah, it really is. And wash those dishes, don't wait for your roommate to do them.
posted by languagehat at 12:15 PM on January 12, 2009
One thing that might help in certain inter-subsite wrong-threadings would be to colour code the Recent Activity page.
Of course, should this ever happen to me, I'll probably try to avoid it after the first half-dozen acknowledged occurrences.
posted by Sys Rq at 12:25 PM on January 12, 2009
Of course, should this ever happen to me, I'll probably try to avoid it after the first half-dozen acknowledged occurrences.
posted by Sys Rq at 12:25 PM on January 12, 2009
Wow, it's pretty rare that we hear someone openly admit to being a child molester *and* worse than hitler.
posted by stet at 12:48 PM on January 12, 2009
posted by stet at 12:48 PM on January 12, 2009
All right, now who called me assgrabbing? Oh, it was Eideteker? Never mind. Geez, you grab someone's ass one time... and those other times... & they never let you forget it.
Lately, posting anything on Metatalk seems to be taken as "please, critique my stupidity." It's weird like that. I'll be less obnoxious. Soon.
posted by Pronoiac at 4:05 PM on January 12, 2009
Lately, posting anything on Metatalk seems to be taken as "please, critique my stupidity." It's weird like that. I'll be less obnoxious. Soon.
posted by Pronoiac at 4:05 PM on January 12, 2009
Come on. Hitler was a pretty good child molester.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 9:34 PM on January 12, 2009
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 9:34 PM on January 12, 2009
Also "No, you're an idiot, and fuck you for asking" is pretty much the standard non-admin response to any feature request,
Frankly, it's not. Some feature requests get primarily "no, you're an idiot" responses, while others get mostly "great idea, I'd like to see that too." But in any case, if you didn't want the non-admin response, why post here, rather than contacting the admins directly?
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 6:20 AM on January 13, 2009
Frankly, it's not. Some feature requests get primarily "no, you're an idiot" responses, while others get mostly "great idea, I'd like to see that too." But in any case, if you didn't want the non-admin response, why post here, rather than contacting the admins directly?
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 6:20 AM on January 13, 2009
The replies and suggestions and general discussion of features is very much the reason to post here, but the meatgrinder-of-snark aspect is an asshat sideshow to that.
Anyhow – I end up in the wrong thread sometimes, because my first instinct is to click on a place that is wrong. Other people may or may not have the same problem. Clicking in the right place rather than the wrong place prevents that problem, but as I say the right place doesn’t seem to be where I instinctually click – If I’m thinking about it the problem does not occur. An additional link, with wording and target as per fantabulous timewaster would seem to be the solution to that, if it turns out other people have the same problem and/or there are no downsides to that. Personally I think that’s a good idea, you may not. Seems like the balance of opinion on the mod side is against it.
That about wraps it up really.
posted by Artw at 11:14 AM on January 13, 2009
Anyhow – I end up in the wrong thread sometimes, because my first instinct is to click on a place that is wrong. Other people may or may not have the same problem. Clicking in the right place rather than the wrong place prevents that problem, but as I say the right place doesn’t seem to be where I instinctually click – If I’m thinking about it the problem does not occur. An additional link, with wording and target as per fantabulous timewaster would seem to be the solution to that, if it turns out other people have the same problem and/or there are no downsides to that. Personally I think that’s a good idea, you may not. Seems like the balance of opinion on the mod side is against it.
That about wraps it up really.
posted by Artw at 11:14 AM on January 13, 2009
Maybe it would just be easier to add a "Uh mods, Artw did it again" flag to the drop down - MeFites helping MeFites, what could be better?!?
[Said with good-natured affection]
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 10:36 PM on January 13, 2009
[Said with good-natured affection]
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 10:36 PM on January 13, 2009
Would some oldskool <HR> action resolve this issue? (Or a tastefully integrated dotted line?)
(Or a boxy LiveJournal-like system?)
(Or that animated .gif where the guy walks across the page and pees?)
(Or a row of dancing Jesuses?)
posted by Sys Rq at 8:43 AM on January 14, 2009
(Or a boxy LiveJournal-like system?)
(Or that animated .gif where the guy walks across the page and pees?)
(Or a row of dancing Jesuses?)
posted by Sys Rq at 8:43 AM on January 14, 2009
Oh! Hey, Artw, do you use Firefox? If you do, there are ways to do this without, well, official decree.
posted by Pronoiac at 9:36 AM on January 14, 2009
posted by Pronoiac at 9:36 AM on January 14, 2009
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posted by Artw at 10:02 AM on January 12, 2009